P4APIOverview - Revision history

TaniaTudorache at 06:14, May 24, 2016

2016-05-24T06:14:00Z

TaniaTudorache at 06:11, May 24, 2016

2016-05-24T06:11:57Z

Nickdrummond: Added links to the UI page

2009-06-30T13:42:38Z

Added links to the UI page

Nickdrummond: Added backlink

2009-06-30T13:36:51Z

Added backlink

Nickdrummond: /* Overview */

2009-06-30T13:35:39Z

‎Overview

Nickdrummond: Added OWL API basics

2009-06-30T13:33:36Z

Added OWL API basics

Nickdrummond: Starting point

2009-06-30T11:13:02Z

Starting point

New page

<div class="orangeBox">
<span class="orangeBoxTitle">Protege 4 APIs</span><br /><br />
Pointers for developers of plugins and understanding the core APIs of Protege 4.
</div><br /><br />

__TOC__

<span style="color: #ff0000;">Work in progress</span>

== Overview ==

Protege 4.0 OWL support is built on top of the OWL API, which provides all of the model manipulation and navigation functionality.

On top of this, Protege supports further functionality for developer's convenience - hierarchies, renderer management, search etc.

Most of the behaviour of the application can be accessed through the main points below, whether accessing the model or the UI.

However, there are also many utility classes provided by Protege or the OWL API.

== Access points ==

The most important three Protege 4 classes you will have access to from most plugins are:

=== OWLModelManager ===

Access to the ontologies, reasoners, search renderings, change management etc. Useful services that it provides are described below.
The most important thing to understand about the OWLModelManager is how [[P4APIOverview#Active_ontologies|active ontologies]] are managed.

=== OWLWorkspace ===

Access to the UI elements (menus, cell renderers, handy entity selectors), global selection management etc

=== OWLEditorKit ===

The central access point for all of the model and UI elements of the OWL editor - you can get to both of the above from the editor kit

== OWL API classes ==

Don't be confused by some classes that have a name similar to the '''OWLModelManager''' class:

* '''OWLOntologyManager''' is a class in the OWL API that is not specific to Protege 4. The OWLOntologyManager plays a central role in the development of OWLAPI code. It provides access to the ontologies, change management, etc. An '''OWLModelManager''' has a getter method that will recover the OWLOntologyManager.
* '''OWLManager''' is utility class in the OWL API that you can use to create an OWLOntologyManager class. In general you probably won't need this when writing Protege 4 code but it is the starting point for most OWL API code.

== Active ontologies ==

A single workspace in P4 can have several ontologies loaded (whether these are imports or otherwise). There needs to be some way to determine which ontology edits are performed on by default. It is reasonable that the user might want to look at, edit or reason with only a subset of those loaded ontologies.

* '''Active ontology''' is the ontology currently visible in the navigation bar at the top of the workspace. By convention all new additions to the model are made in the active ontology.
* '''Active ontologies''' is a set of ontologies including the active ontology. These are the ontologies whose contents are visible in the interface. The ontologies in this set is determined by which strategy is currently selected in the [[Protege4Shortcuts#Ontologies|Ontologies menu]]. The active ontologies are all sent to the reasoner when classification is requested. Edits that affect multiple ontologies should act on the active ontologies.
* '''Loaded ontologies''' is the set of all ontologies loaded into this OWLModelManager. Any ontologies that are loaded but not active should not show up in the interface.

The '''OWLModelManager''' simply uses the OWL API's '''OWLOntologyManager''' to manage these ontologies, however the OWL API manager only has a notion of ''loaded ontologies''. If you write code that is designed to be portable (by using the OWL API OWLOntologyManager directly) you should respect the active ontologies and operate on this set only by passing them around (or having a central manager). In other words, don't just operate on the

== Useful subsidiary classes ==

=== From the OWLModelManager ===

* The current '''OWLEntityRenderer''' is used to get the short name for any entity based on the renderer preferences.
* '''EntityFinder''' can be used to find classes, properties and individuals by name.
* '''OWLEntityFactory''' should be used to create classes, properties and individuals using the naming conventions in the '''New entities''' preferences. The factory returns a creation set which contains the changes required to create the entity. This must be applied explicitly by your code.
* The current '''OWLReasoner''' can be retrieved. To check if it currently contains a classified model with '''isClassified()'''.

== Events ==

Protege has several event models that can be subscribed to in order to keep your plugins aware of changes to the model or the system.

=== OWLModelManager events ===

You can add an '''OWLModelManagerListener''' using '''addListener''' to be notified about large granularity changes to the set of ontologies loaded.
Get the type of the event to determine the change that has occured
ACTIVE_ONTOLOGY_CHANGED, ONTOLOGY_VISIBILITY_CHANGED, ENTITY_RENDERER_CHANGED, ENTITY_RENDERING_CHANGED, REASONER_CHANGED, ABOUT_TO_CLASSIFY, ONTOLOGY_CLASSIFIED, ONTOLOGY_CREATED, ONTOLOGY_LOADED, ONTOLOGY_RELOADED, ONTOLOGY_SAVED

Adding an '''OWLOntologyChangeListener''' will allow you to keep track of changes to any of the loaded ontologies to allow you to keep a view in sync with the model for example. You will receive a list of the changes to determine if they are pertinent to your plugin.

An '''IOListener''' can be useful to get notification before or after an ontology is loaded or saved. This could be used to provide standard transforms or quality control warnings on ontology loading/serialisation.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <div class="orangeBox">
-<span class="orangeBoxTitle">Protege 4 APIs</span><br /><br />
+<span class="orangeBoxTitle">Protege APIs</span><br /><br />
-Pointers for developers of plugins and understanding the core APIs of Protege 4.
+Pointers for developers of plugins and understanding the core APIs of Protege 4, 5 and newer.
 </div><br /><br />
@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 == Overview ==
-Protege 4.0 OWL support is built on top of the [[P4APIOverview#OWL_API_basics|OWL API]], which provides all of the model manipulation and querying functionality.
+Protege OWL support is built on top of the [[P4APIOverview#OWL_API_basics|OWL API]], which provides all of the model manipulation and querying functionality.
 On top of this, Protege supports further functionality for developer's convenience - hierarchies, renderer management, search etc.
-Most of the behaviour of the application can be accessed through the main points below, whether accessing the model or the UI.
+Most of the behavior of the application can be accessed through the main points below, whether accessing the model or the UI.
 However, there are also many utility classes provided by Protege or the OWL API.
@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 == Access points ==
-The most important three Protege 4 classes you will have access to from most plugins are:
+The most important three Protege classes you will have access to from most plugins are:
 === OWLModelManager ===
@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 ==== Active ontologies ====
-A single editor kit in P4 can have several ontologies loaded (whether these are imports or otherwise). There needs to be some way to determine which ontology edits are performed on by default. It is reasonable that the user might want to look at, edit or reason with only a subset of those loaded ontologies.
+A single editor kit in Protege can have several ontologies loaded (whether these are imports or otherwise). There needs to be some way to determine which ontology edits are performed on by default. It is reasonable that the user might want to look at, edit or reason with only a subset of those loaded ontologies.
 * '''Active ontology''' is the ontology currently visible in the navigation bar at the top of the workspace. By convention all new additions to the model are made in the active ontology.
@@ Line 108: / Line 108: @@
 === OWL what Manager? ===
 Don't be confused by some classes that have a name similar to the '''OWLModelManager''' class:
-* '''OWLOntologyManager''' is a class in the OWL API that is not specific to Protege 4.  The OWLOntologyManager plays a central role in the development of OWLAPI code.  It provides access to the ontologies, change management, etc.  An '''OWLModelManager''' has a getter method that will recover the OWLOntologyManager.
+* '''OWLOntologyManager''' is a class in the OWL API that is not specific to Protege.  The OWLOntologyManager plays a central role in the development of OWLAPI code.  It provides access to the ontologies, change management, etc.  An '''OWLModelManager''' has a getter method that will recover the OWLOntologyManager.
-* '''OWLManager''' is utility class in the OWL API that you can use to create an OWLOntologyManager class.  In general you probably won't need this when writing Protege 4 code but it is the starting point for most OWL API code.
+* '''OWLManager''' is utility class in the OWL API that you can use to create an OWLOntologyManager class.  In general you probably won't need this when writing Protege code but it is the starting point for most OWL API code.

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 </div><br /><br />
-Back to [[Protege4DevDocs]]
+'''Back to [[Main_Page#Developer_Documentation|Protege Developer Documentation]]'''
@@ Line 166: / Line 166: @@
+     }
+   }

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 However, there are also many utility classes provided by Protege or the OWL API.
@@ Line 46: / Line 48: @@
 === OWLWorkspace ===
-Access to the UI elements (menus, cell renderers, handy entity selectors), global selection management etc
+This is the environment presented to the user. This class provides access to the core UI elements (menus, cell renderers, handy entity selectors), global selection management etc.

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 == Overview ==
-Protege 4.0 OWL support is built on top of the OWL API, which provides all of the model manipulation and navigation functionality.
+Protege 4.0 OWL support is built on top of the [P4APIOverview#OWL_API_basics|OWL API], which provides all of the model manipulation and querying functionality.
 On top of this, Protege supports further functionality for developer's convenience - hierarchies, renderer management, search etc.
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 Access to the ontologies, reasoners, search renderings, change management etc. Useful services that it provides are described below.
 The most important thing to understand about the OWLModelManager is how [[P4APIOverview#Active_ontologies|active ontologies]] are managed.
@@ Line 41: / Line 51: @@
-== OWL API classes ==
+== Useful subsidiary classes ==
-Don't be confused by some classes that have a name similar to the '''OWLModelManager''' class:
+=== EntityFinder===
-== Active ontologies ==
+The current factory attached to the OWLModelManager should be used to create classes, properties and individuals using the naming conventions in the '''New entities''' preferences. The factory returns a creation set which contains the changes required to create the entity. This must be applied explicitly by your code.
-* '''Active ontology''' is the ontology currently visible in the navigation bar at the top of the workspace. By convention all new additions to the model are made in the active ontology.
+=== OWLReasoner (OWLAPI) ===
-The '''OWLModelManager''' simply uses the OWL API's '''OWLOntologyManager''' to manage these ontologies, however the OWL API manager only has a notion of ''loaded ontologies''. If you write code that is designed to be portable (by using the OWL API OWLOntologyManager directly) you should respect the active ontologies and operate on this set only by passing them around (or having a central manager). In other words, don't just operate on the
+The current reasoner as selected in the reasoner menu can be retrieved from the OWLModelManager. To check if it currently contains a classified model with '''isClassified()'''.
-== Useful subsidiary classes ==
+=== OWLHierarchyManager ===
-=== From the OWLModelManager ===
+A central place to get to shared '''OWLObjectHierarchyProvider'''s. These providers are convenient tree models that can be directly handed to a OWLModelManagerTree or used to traverse the various asserted or inferred hierarchies of classes and properties. Get this from the OWLModelManager.
 == Events ==
@@ Line 82: / Line 91: @@
 An '''IOListener''' can be useful to get notification before or after an ontology is loaded or saved. This could be used to provide standard transforms or quality control warnings on ontology loading/serialisation.